Muggeridge: the fallen and the standing

Saturday, September 15, 2018
Meditation:
    Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
    —John 6:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The various moral and theological and sociological disputes of the day, however progressively resolved with ecclesiastical connivance, have nothing to say to this spiritual hunger, which is not assuaged by legalized abortion and homosexuality, solaced by contraception, or relieved by majority rule. Nor will it take comfort in the thought that God is dead, or that mankind has come of age, or even in ecumenical negotiations for writing off Papal Infallibility against the validity of Anglican Orders. The only means of satisfying it remains that bread of life which Jesus offered, with the promise that those who are of it should never hunger again. The promise stands.
    ... Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), Jesus Rediscovered, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969, p. xiii (see the book)
    See also John 6:35; Isa. 55:1-3; Matt. 11:28; John 6:27,48-58; 7:37; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; Rev. 22:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, create hearts that seek only the Living Bread. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: excusing others

Friday, September 14, 2018
    Feast of the Holy Cross
Meditation:
    “Therefore, [Jesus said] the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
    “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
    “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
    “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
    “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
    “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
    “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
    —Matthew 18:23-35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Thou knowest well how to excuse and colour thine own deeds, but thou art not willing to receive the excuses of others. It were more just that thou shouldest accuse thyself, and excuse thy brother.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.iii.2, p. 87 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 18:23-35; 5:44-45; 7:1-2; Luke 6:35-36; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; Jas. 2:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Must I forgive the undeserving? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chrysostom: a greater work

Thursday, September 13, 2018
    Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat...”
    —Matthew 25:35a (NIV)
Quotation:
    Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead.
    ... St. John Chrysostom (345?-407)
    See also Matt. 25:35; 5:6; Luke 1:53; John 6:21,32-35; Rom. 12:20-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to help those in need. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Clerk: dissolution of a difficulty

Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Meditation:
    For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
    —1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The mystical union, on the one hand. The resurrection of the body, on the other. I can’t reach the ghost of an image, a formula, or even a feeling, that combines them. But the reality, we are given to understand, does. Reality [is] the iconoclast once more. Heaven will solve our problems—but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.
    ... N. W. Clerk, A Grief Observed, penname of C. S. Lewis, Seabury Press, 1963, p. 56 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 4:16-17; Luke 24:38; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; Jas. 1:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your love solves all problems. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Geisler & Nix: beyond question

Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Meditation:
    Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!
    —Galatians 6:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When a comparison is made of the variant readings of the New Testament with those of other books which have survived from antiquity, the results are little short of astounding. For instance, although there are some 200,000 “errors” among the New Testament manuscripts, these appear in only about 10,000 places, and only about one-sixtieth rise above the level of trivialities. Westcott and Hort, Ezra Abbot, Philip Schaff, and A. T. Robertson have carefully evaluated the evidence and have concluded that the New Testament text is over 99 percent pure. In the light of the fact that there are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts, some 9,000 versions and translations, the evidence for the integrity of the New Testament is beyond question.
    ... Norman L. Geisler (b. 1932) & William E. Nix, From God to Us, Chicago: Moody Press, 1974, p. 180 (see the book)
    See also Gal. 6:10-11; Ps. 119:140; Rom. 3:1-4; Acts 7:37-38; 26:25-27; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Heb. 5:12; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; Rev. 22:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in Your mercy, drive all doubt away. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barclay: the discernment we need

Monday, September 10, 2018
Meditation:
    Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.
    —1 Corinthians 11:28-29 (RSV)
Quotation:
    Division has always been a disease of the church... The Love Feast, which should have been the sign and symbol of perfect unity, has become a thing of divisions and class distinctions. And here there is something which only the newer translations reveal. In the older translations, it is said that to eat and drink at the sacrament without discerning the Lord’s body is the way to judgment and not to salvation. But in the best Greek text, the word Lord’s is not included. The sin is not to discern the body; that is to say, not to discern that the church is a body, not to be aware of the oneness of the church, not to be aware of the togetherness in which all its members should be joined.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), Ethics in a Permissive Society, New York: Harper & Row, 1971, Fontana, 1971, p. 59 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 11:28-29,31; Ps. 26:2-3; Lam. 3:40; Hag. 1:5,7; John 17:22-23; 2 Cor. 13;5; Gal. 6:4; 1 John 3:19-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Show us our unity, Lord, in Your body and blood. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: the trifles

Sunday, September 9, 2018
Meditation:
Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
    when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the LORD will see and disapprove
    and turn his wrath away from him.
Do not fret because of evil men
    or be envious of the wicked,
for the evil man has no future hope,
    and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.
    —Proverbs 24:17-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If monotony tries me, and I cannot stand drudgery; if stupid people fret me and the little ruffles set me on edge; if I make much of the trifles of life, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), If [1938], London: SPCK, 1961, p. 44 (see the book)
    See also Pr. 24:17-20; Ps. 37:1-3; 103:10; Jas. 1:5; 1 Pet. 2:24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, restrain my self-centeredness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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